"You will pay for what you have done. A blood price."
Laufey's furious voice was somewhat hoarse amid the icy wilderness. With a single flick of his hand, the mountain-cleaving axe forged by the Mountain Giants in the treasury flew into his grasp.
Along with the axe came the cloak that allowed Laufey to fly through the air.
"No one can save you. Not even Thanos. I said so."
The roaring power of the mountains gathered around Laufey's massive axe. He leaped up from the ground, but before he could bring the axe down, a hammer falling from the sky directly shattered the power gathered upon its blade.
"Hela Odinsdottir!"
Floating in midair with the aid of his cloak, Laufey roared and turned his gaze toward Hela, who held Mjolnir. Beckett looked at her as well.
"Don't misunderstand. I'd actually love nothing more than to see you die. But there's one thing—I don't want to die in Jotunheim alongside an arrogant fool like you."
Seeing Beckett look over, Hela spun Mjolnir in her hand. The hammer imbued with Odin's power collided with Laufey's giant axe once again. A piercing boom erupted over the Jotunheim Royal Court, and Mjolnir's sheer strength made a flicker of surprise pass through Beckett's eyes.
If she had this thing, why hadn't she used it earlier?
"I am Asgard's Goddess of Death, not the Goddess of Hammers." Seemingly sensing Beckett's thoughts, Hela controlled Mjolnir with one hand, her expression solemn.
The hammer was merely a transitional tool, ultimately nothing more than an external object. Relying too heavily on such things would only halt her understanding and development of divine power. Hela had understood this long ago.
Because she understood that, Mjolnir was merely an ordinary toy she could summon whenever she wanted. She had rarely used its power in serious battles for a long time.
Her battle with Beckett on the Bloody Plains had broken her year-long record of not using Mjolnir. And now, to stop Laufey from defeating them one at a time, Hela picked up Mjolnir once more, still imbued with Odin's power.
"There's actually a title like Goddess of Hammers?" With his back against Hela's, Beckett fired energy waves from his ten fingers, piercing through the chests of dozens of royal guard members. The curve of his lips made Hela's expression turn icy.
"Shut that insufferable mouth of yours."
A murderous glare descended alongside Mjolnir in Hela's hand. Having narrowly escaped death, Hela's strength had grown as well, and she could now unlock the Odin power sealed within Mjolnir.
The magnificent palace was reduced to ruins in an instant.
"Hela Odinsdottir! Son of Thanos!"
The low growl seemed to rise from the abyss of hell. Beckett disdainfully shook his hand, looking at the collapsed ice-crystal palace and corpses strewn across the ground with arrogant contempt in his eyes. "My name is Beckett."
Bang!
Laufey's massive figure burst from the palace ruins. Facing his attack, Beckett, whose nerves were taut at all times, had veins bulging across his muscles as he drove a power-laden fist straight into Laufey's body.
Invisible shockwaves surged through the air. In this contest of raw strength, Beckett's feet were forced backward.
"Give you a few more years, and it might be hard to say who would win. But now, the victor can only be me!"
A king's pride would not allow Laufey to retreat. Instead, it made him acknowledge the strength Beckett had displayed thus far.
To be honest, he envied both Odin and Thanos.
Whether it was Hela or Beckett, they were both from a younger generation than him. Barring any surprises, they would become the rulers of Asgard and the Dark Order in the future.
And what about him, Laufey?
He still did not even have a child.
Should he consider having children and continuing his royal bloodline? What if his child was even more talented than him? Once that child grew up, wouldn't the Frost Giants have hope of conquering the Nine Realms—or even the universe?
Even while seriously considering this, Laufey did not forget to increase his power output. Empowered by Jotunheim's frigid climate, the ripples stirred up by his frost sorcery made Beckett's body tremble uncontrollably.
This was extreme cold.
"It's over."
The Casket of Ancient Winters that Beckett had been longing for was finally retrieved by Laufey from the palace ruins. Under Laufey's control, its dazzling radiance bloomed. Empowered by the ice and snow, frost capable of freezing everything spread from beneath Laufey's feet.
At the Jotunheim Royal Court, Laufey could use the Casket of Ancient Winters to gain power vast enough to make him invincible. This was one reason Odin had always struggled to conquer Jotunheim.
Two lifelike ice statues stood before Laufey—Beckett, Son of Thanos, and Hela, Odin's daughter.
The Wind Giant's mountain-cleaving axe answered Laufey's summons. Its sharp blade descended from above, chopping straight toward the frozen Beckett.
Crack!
Just before the giant axe reached Beckett's chest, a crack appeared across the ice statue's surface. The sound of it was especially grating to Laufey's ears.
"What?"
As soon as the word left his mouth, the ice crystals restraining Beckett exploded into fragments that filled the sky, carried upward by surging shockwaves!
"The Casket of Ancient Winters—I told you it was mine."
Breaking free at the crucial moment, Beckett's legs erupted with force. In the next instant, he had appeared behind Laufey.
A powerful sweeping kick tore through the air and slammed straight into Laufey's waist!
With a boom, Laufey staggered. In that flash of lightning, he only felt a figure dart past him. When he turned back, the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hand had vanished.
"His Highness Beckett! I got it!"
The blue robotic cat held the Casket of Ancient Winters high over his head with both hands. His large, guileless face wore a smile, his eyes curved like crescents.
"It really wasn't easy waiting for you to take out the Casket of Ancient Winters yourself." After waving for Woz to leave first, Beckett rubbed his wrist, a smug smile rippling through his eyes.
The Casket of Ancient Winters was not in the treasury, so there was only one possibility—it had always been kept close to Laufey.
"I have to admit, you surprised me. Both mentally and in terms of strength. But this ends here."
"Thanos will probably be very saddened by your death." Holding his giant axe, Laufey walked toward Beckett step by step. If Laufey had previously held back, merely intending to break Beckett's legs, then now truly overwhelming killing intent rose within him.
The dense frost gradually blurred Beckett's vision. Once his sight was filled with bleak snowflakes, Beckett chose to close his eyes and move by instinct.
His mind moved as he wished, and his body moved with his mind. This was the method his adoptive father Thanos had taught him: fighting through instinct in extreme conditions. Beckett had rarely encountered such desperate situations and was not familiar with this state, but having lost his vision, he could only enter it.
As energy surged, his toes lightly tapped the ground, and his body abruptly shot backward for dozens of miles. Clearly, Beckett no longer had any intention of continuing to entangle himself with Laufey.
The earth trembled, and the sky roared. Within Jotunheim, Beckett felt as though the enemy he faced was not Laufey, but the entire world of Jotunheim.
"Thanos will weep for you, Beckett." Laufey pressed forward step by step, clenching one hand into a fist. Invisible pressure forced Beckett to stop moving.
"My father will not weep for me. He will only be proud of me." His cold gaze fixed on Laufey as he approached step by step. Behind Beckett, an interstellar fleet formed from one battleship after another rose into view, their savage weapons all aimed at Laufey's massive body.
"His Highness Beckett, everything is ready." Woz's voice came from the flagship. The blue robotic cat pulled a thick mechanical arm from his pocket and pushed a machine into Laufey's sight.
"Disappear."
Beckett raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. The thunderous roar of artillery immediately echoed throughout the Jotunheim Royal Court!
The earth under attack wailed. Hela, finally breaking free of the ice, hurriedly formed a shield before herself. Looking at the figure in the distance who had snapped his fingers, she cursed inwardly.
Firelight filled the sky, dyeing Jotunheim red. Laufey burst from the flames with an expressionless face. Such artillery fire barely counted as damage to him.
"His Highness Beckett!"
A silver-white beam shot out under Woz's control. Before Laufey and Hela's eyes, it formed the phantom of a full moon in the sky above Jotunheim.
ROAR!!!!!
Before you continue